HUMBLEBRAG!

Simply the Best in half-marathon 

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Winter-tested Ottawa runner lives up to his name

Nick Best didn’t need a whole lot of motivation to push forward in Sunday’s half-marathon at the Tamarack Homes Ottawa Race Weekend.

He won the race quite handily — his time of 1:11:05.5 was more than two minutes ahead of St-Hilaire’s Dany Croteau (1:13:26.9). Quebec City’s Johann Salazar was third in 1:14:06.0.

But it was some out-of-the box thinking that helped Best find the moment.

“I watch Deadliest Catch and I figure if they can suffer through what they do to catch crabs, I can do anything,” said Best, a 23-year-old parliamentary assistant to Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington MP Scott Reid.

Best, who moved to Ottawa 10 months ago, ran the course in -25C temperatures in the winter to get himself ready.

“I’ve been running 140 km a week,” said Best, whose dad Dunnery ran marathons until an injury forced him to stop. “It’s been mostly through Gatineau Park. The trails are perfect there. The toughest part (Sunday) was when you go right onto the parkway. There’s a bit of a headwind and you’ve got 8K still to do. But I had it under control. Short of a disastrous collapse, I had a pretty good idea I was going to win at that point.”

It was his biggest race victory, made sweeter by the cheering crowds.

“You’re going as hard as you can and there are 8,000 people cheering you on,” he said. “It makes you push yourself to the bonkers limit.”

He said he would like to move up to marathons, but not quite yet.

“If I do a marathon, I’d want to do it in 2:20 and I’d need to train 210-220 km a week,” he said.

For now, he’s amped about the Sept. 23 Army Run in Ottawa.

My favorite little brother Nick just KILLED IT!!!!!!!!